What if I’m right and there’s a genuine naivety— and all she’s said so far bears that out—that would make it child’s play to have her fall in love with me and want to marry me? Talk of revenge or poetic justice, if you like, and there’s no doubt the bastard deserves it, but…
‘Maggie…’ he paused ‘… what if it doesn’t lead towards wedding bells or a relationship, at least?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know—how can I? But the really important thing to me is to know that I didn’t sit back and let something I judged special to me just pass me by.’
He grinned suddenly and bent his head to kiss her lightly. ‘You’re… I don’t know, pretty special yourself, I guess.’
‘So we could be friends, at least?’
‘We could be friends, at least,’ he agreed wryly. ‘There is a proviso, however.’
‘You’re not the marrying kind?’ she hazarded. She said it perfectly seriously, but there was a glint he was coming to know in her eyes.
‘I—’
‘I don’t know if I am yet,’ she interposed. ‘Because—and not that this has anything to do with being rich, spoilt and privileged; I’m quite sure I would have been the same if I’d been born in a poorhouse— I can be very dictatorial, I’m told.’
‘I wonder why I find that quite easy to believe?’ he murmured.
‘Some of my actions to date may have led you to suspect it?’ she suggested with deep, suspicious gravity.
‘One or two.’ He circled the outline of her mouth with his finger. ‘So how long did you plan to spend up here at the Cape?’
‘I booked in for a week, but I have another week’s leave up my sleeve. It seemed like a great place, especially for someone dodging journalists and P. I. s, even if you weren’t here.’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘How did you find out about this place?’
‘I can’t tell you that.’ She hesitated. ‘But don’t worry, it won’t go any further.’
He frowned.
‘How long are you here for?’ she queried.
‘Same. Another week,’ he said abstractedly.
‘When did you arrive?’
‘A couple of days ago.’
‘Oh, good!’ She sat up. ‘That gives us plenty of time.’
He removed his arms and folded them across his chest. ‘Are you planning to move in with me?’
She thought for a moment, then glinted him an impish glance. ‘No. That would look as if all I was after was your body.’
‘Perish the thought,’ he murmured and drew her back into his arms.
‘If you’re going to kiss me again…’ she began.
‘I am. You have a problem there?’
‘Not per se—’
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he commented, and ran his fingers down her thigh.
‘There is only the fact that—’ She stopped and shivered as he stroked her neck and the soft skin just below the neck of her top. ‘Uh—the fact that…’
‘Go on,’ he invited.
‘Things could get out of hand rather easily.’ She grimaced. ‘For me, at least.’
‘Then you’ll have to rely on me to exert the willpower.’
She eyed him suspiciously. ‘Are you laughing at me, Jack?’
‘No. Yes,’ he corrected himself.
‘Am I so—laughable?’
He did kiss her, lightly, his grey eyes gleaming with amusement. ‘No. You’re unique, that’s all.’
She lay back in his arms. ‘That’s one of the things I like about you.’
He raised an eyebrow.
‘I feel safe with you,’ she said.
He paused and lifted his head to stare into the distance.
Maggie waited but he didn’t enlighten her about whatever he was seeing in his mind’s eye. Then, with a strange little sound in his throat, he gathered her very close and kissed her deeply.
Once again it was a sublime experience for Maggie. She felt comforted and cradled but very alive at the same time, and supremely conscious of him, and she uttered a blissful sigh at the end of it that made him laugh.
‘The next bit might not be quite as pleasant,’ he said, still grinning.